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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27161389">White Lies</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alternatewarning/pseuds/Alternatewarning'>Alternatewarning</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Final Fantasy XV</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, This is sort of the start of a relationship nothing more, pre-game</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 00:07:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Rape/Non-Con, Underage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,483</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27161389</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alternatewarning/pseuds/Alternatewarning</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Direct sequel to Lies of Omission, but can be read as a stand-alone piece.</p><p>After finally dealing with the man who had been using him for years, Ignis is left feeling adrift and sleepless.  His own personal daemon is no more so why can't he escape the man's shadow even in his dreams.</p><p>Whumptober 2020 entry: Numbers 15 (alternate prompt) and 23 - Nightmares and Exhaustion</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gladiolus Amicitia/Ignis Scientia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Whumptober 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>White Lies</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is a direct sequel to Lies of Omission but can be read on its own.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ignis thought that, after that night, everything would be easier.  He should have known better, things were never as easy as they seemed.  Even though Gladio had disposed of the body, he didn’t want to know how or where so he never asked, and he had cleaned the hallway to a spotless shine, still a member of the royal council was suddenly missing.  The last he had been seen was in the Citadel but the building was massive, he could have easily left with no one being any the wiser.</p><p>If it had been anyone other than Gladio then Ignis would have worried that he would eventually be turned in for his crime.  But Gladio knew what would happen just as well as Ignis did.  If the prince’s retainers were found removing Insomnia citizens without any prior authorization it would be an absolute scandal.  They would both be exiled at best and left to the daemons at worst.  More than that, though, Noctis would never be able to recover from a political blow like that.  It was already hard enough on the boy, carrying the weight of a title much too heavy for a child.  So they both knew to stay silent.</p><p>The Shield as well as himself had actually been called in to help with the search, which Ignis supposed worked for the better.  Gladio was one of the boots on the ground, looking for any hint of the man or what could have happened, and Ignis was left coordinating files and information.  He was able to leaf through every eyewitness report, every complaint, every commendation that the man had ever had in his life.  It was almost sickening how much people looked up to him.  He was a drunkard and a pervert but his public face was almost fatherly.  It made the advisor want to retch.</p><p>It wasn’t just the additional duties that were weighing on his mind.  It seemed like every time he closed his eyes he was there again.  Sometimes it was in the hallway, a hand in his hair forcing him to gag around something much too large for his throat.  The back of his mind silently wondering if he was going to pass out from lack of air and how absolutely humiliating that would be.  Sometimes it was back when he was still a boy, too small to fight, too ignorant to see past illogical lies.  He would never forget that feeling: the pain, the burn, the cold of tile against his hands and knees, the knowledge that what was happening was very, very wrong.  </p><p>Every night when he tried to sleep he found himself trapped in a nightmarish playback of an old memory.  His mind jumped around from one point into another, merging them together.  The pressure of a belt around his neck cutting off his air, the pain from something much too large for a ten-year-old body, the shame of purple bruises on his neck and on his hips that no one seemed to notice.  And every night he would awaken, a silent scream trapped in his throat, sweat sticking his nightshirt against his body.  His body tense and on edge, he didn’t bother to try and sleep again, he knew he would just return to the twisted wonderland of his dreams.</p><p>After two weeks of looking for the missing council member, the manhunt seemed to slow down.  It was still alive, on paper, but the paperwork had appeared on Ignis’s desk to work on electing a replacement for the empty seat.  Two weeks of wondering if someone would find out, if someone would know; two weeks of stumbling out of bed with only an hour or so of sleep, and Ignis was starting to wear down.  There were so many responsibilities, so many duties, so much paperwork that, at the very least, there was always something to do.  He spent his sleepless nights working in his office, only taking short naps on his couch before the nightmares dragged him awake with their claws in his heart.</p><p>One evening Ignis slowly opened his eyes.  He was waking up but it wasn’t in a flurry of fear and panic, it was just a soft, normal waking.  For at least a moment.  As he was still blinking, eyesight blurry, there was a voice that distinctly did not belong in his room.</p><p>“Good morning sleeping beauty.”  It was deep, gruff, but friendly.</p><p>“Gladio, what are you doing in my roo...office?”  As Ignis shook off the fog of sleep he realized that he was not home in his bed.  He was in his Citidel office and Gladio was sitting on the couch in the corner.  This meant that he wasn’t on the couch, the one place he would dare to sneak in a nap before he passed out from exhaustion.  It was only then that he managed to pull together the last few missing pieces.  He had been sleeping at his desk, over some very important diplomatic papers he was supposed to be reading in Noctis’s stead and somehow his glasses had ended up folded neatly in the corner of the desk.  The window overlooking the city was casting a deep orange hue meaning the sun was setting and he’d ‘napped’ for much longer than he ever intended.</p><p>Quickly the retainer sat up, brushing off his crumpled shirt, and grabbing his glasses to return them to his face.  The blur was now gone, nothing more than a remnant of imperfect eyesight.  That still didn’t answer how they had gotten off of his face but he had a sneaking suspicion that the answer to that question was the same as to why there was a pair of amber eyes boring him down from across the room.</p><p>“Can I help you?”  Ignis made no move to hide his annoyance as Gladio just kept staring at him.  He felt like the other was boring into his soul, searching around through his nightmares and fears.</p><p>“I’m going to give you two options, Iggy.  Either you tell me what the hell is wrong with you now or after I sit here staring at you for a while.”  Despite being only a year older, there was something about Gladio’s aura that was strikingly intense when he wanted it to be.  It was clear that he was being entirely serious and he wasn’t planning to leave until he made Ignis crack.</p><p>“Nothing is wrong, I am only busy.  Busy enough that I don’t have time for your games.”</p><p>“Ignis, I’m not going to play stupid.  I said I wasn’t going to ask any questions, and I’m not.  But even Noct knows something is going on with you.  You look like you haven’t slept in weeks and you’re making mistakes.”  Gladio drew out the last word on his tongue as he crossed his arms and leaned back.  He had packed so much subtext into one word that it felt like the small office was too cramped between their two bodies and everything Gladio left unsaid.  Ignis narrowed his green eyes, glaring at him through his glasses.  Yes, the Shield was older, bigger, and stronger but the advisor was not intimidated.</p><p>“I am human, in case you’ve forgotten.  Everyone makes mistakes.”  He busied himself collecting the diplomatic agreement on his desk and carefully stacking the pages together, he would read it later when his mind was a little more focused.</p><p>“You don’t.  At least, nothing anyone else would notice.  You don’t have to keep hiding, you don’t have to keep holding onto his secret.  This room is just you and me, you know.  I’m not stupid, I know what was going on.  I’ve known for a while.”  There was probably more he had to say but anything else was cut off but a sudden clatter of a chair being thrown to the floor as Ignis stood up and banged his hands against the wooden desk.</p><p>“Then why didn’t you say anything!”  The teenager was stiff with anger and hurt, emotions rolling off of his skin even as he kept his face stoic.  For a moment the room hung in oppressive silence as Gladio searched his friend’s face.  Guilt started to settle into his stomach as he tried to form words.</p><p>“I...don't know.”  His entire plan of slowly warming up Ignis to talk to him was shattered to pieces between them.  Instead, he realized that the cause of all this, the cause of the ‘missing’ council member and Ignis’s weariness, wasn’t just on Ignis’s shoulders alone.  For the last few years, he’d felt in his gut that something was off.  Ignis was closed off, he always had been, but there was something there, a weight, a guilt that seemed misplaced.  And then the bruises.  At first, Gladio had chalked them up to training, especially since he knew that Ignis snuck into the training yard to work alone.  But then they kept appearing and he knew those were not marks from weapons.</p><p>Everything had clicked in his mind one night when he’d come in to work off some stress and he’d caught Ignis changing.  Around his hips were two large purple bruises, the shape of hands across his pale skin complete with red rings where fingernails dug in much too deeply.  His neck, too, was bruised badly enough that Ignis seemed to flinch as he buttoned up his shirt.  Part of him had wanted to say something, anything.  To grab the younger boy and ask him if he was okay, to bring him to a doctor and make sure he was okay.  But when Ignis turned around and they locked eyes, his voice had just withered.  He had tried to convince himself it wasn’t any of his business and he’d just offered a casual greeting as the advisor slipped by.  And now they were here.</p><p>“I should have and that’s on me.  I...I’m sorry, Ignis.  I could make excuses until the sun rises but that won’t change the fact that you’re right.  I should have listened to my gut.”  It was only now, looking across the room at him, that he realized Ignis was only a teenager.  He carried himself like an adult with years of experience and knowledge behind him, but he wasn’t.  He was just a kid, a kid that everyone piled expectations on until something started to crack.  How long had this been going on?</p><p>“Can I ask-”<br/>“You said you wouldn’t ask any questions.”  Gladio opened his mouth to reply but shut it, the ice in Ignis’s voice enough to quiet him.  “But I will answer the pressing one.  ‘How long’ is what you wanted to ask me, I’m sure.”  The Shield just nodded, shrinking against the couch in guilt.</p><p>“Six years.”  Ignis let out a heavy sigh, the tension and anger in his body escaping in the sound.  He moved slowly, his body heavy, as he stood up the chair on the ground before letting himself fall into it with a loud thud.</p><p>“I was-”<br/>“Fuck, you were ten.”  Realization suddenly dawned across Gladio’s face, his eyes widening before anger flashed across his eyes.  “You were only a little kid.”  Iris was ten right now and the idea of that happening to her made him want to rage.  As smart as Ignis was, a little kid could easily be manipulated by an adult, especially in a precarious situation like this.  Only last night his little sister had come into his room to sleep since she’d had nightmares and was scared.  She was so small, so innocent, and he would murder anyone who even dared to take that away from her.</p><p>“I’m, Iggy, I’m sorry I didn’t say anything.”<br/>“It’s fine, water under the bridge.  Nothing is going to change no matter how much you pity me.  Now, I really do have mountains of work to do.  You can see yourself out.”  Ignis motioned towards the door as he pulled his chair back up to his desk.  He wasn’t sure if he would actually be getting any work done but his heart was starting to ache from talking about it.  Gladio stood up and so the advisor turned his attention to the schedule on his desk.  He needed to fit in a meeting with the interviewers for the empty council seat.</p><p>Suddenly Ignis’s chair was pulled back, tipping him away from the desk.  He tried to stand and get away but Gladio was already there, wrapping an arm around his chest and lifting him over his shoulder.</p><p>“What is the meaning of this!  Unhand me, Gladio!”  He was not a sack of rice!  While Ignis didn’t want to hurt the other man, he also didn’t want to be carried.  Eventually, Gladio’s weight shifted and he was set down, but not on the ground.  Instead, he was gently dropped onto the couch, his back hitting the cushions with a little too much force.</p><p>“Gladio!”<br/>“I’m not pitying you.  But I am going to make up for keeping silent.  I can tell you haven’t been sleeping, the fact that you dozed off at your desk is proof enough of that.  So sleep.  I’m going to stay here with you.”  The Shield walked over to the desk and pulled over the empty chair that had been opposite of where Ignis had been only moments before.  He placed it at the head of the couch, just to the side.  It creaked as Gladio sat down, his weight heavy against a chair that was rarely used.  No one bothered to visit Ignis in his office.</p><p>“You clearly didn’t understand me when I said I had work to do.”<br/>“There will always be more work.  Just take a short nap, then.  But I’ll be here, so don’t worry.  Even if you have nightmares you’ll be safe.  I’m done standing by and letting things happen.”  There was a resolution in his voice that made Ignis’s chest warm.  Gladio really was intending to sit here and make sure that he slept.  It was a little humiliating but somehow he knew that if he tried to fight it he would lose in the long run.  With a huff to save face, he took off his glasses and set them on the table next to the couch.</p><p>“Fine, a short nap, thirty minutes or so.  Then you will leave me to my work.”<br/>“Fair enough.  Now sleep.”  Gladio gave him a good-natured shove before leaning back in the chair.  With a roll of his eyes, Ignis laid down, turning his back to Gladio so he could pretend he was alone.  Exhaustion settled along his body as he closed his eyes, comforted by the sound of breathing next to him.  Just the knowledge that Gladio was there was enough and Ignis finally fell into a deep sleep.  He slept through the night peacefully and Gladio stayed by his side, keeping the nightmares at bay.</p>
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